Episode 3

The next morning.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

His alarm clock beeped so loudly that it disturbed Matthew’s sleep. He lightly slammed his fist on the clock that finally shut up. Matthew covered himself back up under his blanket.

Suddenly his ringtone went off.

“Huh? Who would call me this earl-” His words were cut off when he saw the name of the caller displayed on the screen of his phone. “ROSE?!”

He shot up from bed and quickly answered the phone. “He… Hello?”

“Did you just wake up?” Rose’s voice was transmitted through the speaker.

“Ehhh of course not.” Matthew answered with a shaky tone.

“Really? Cause I already called you a bunch of times before.”

“Eh, re-really? I didn’t notice.”

“Because you were asleep, right?”

Matthew could feel the tension in her voice. He gave in. “Hah… Yes, sorry about that. Where are you now? At the park?”

“Open the gate already. It’s hot out here.”

“Yo-you’re already here?!”

“Yes, now please hurry.” Rose ended the call. There was clearly a dissatisfied tone behind it.

“Crap! She’s already here!” Matthew instantly sped out from his room to allow her entry.

…..

Matthew sat with his face down in front of Rose who was right across the table in the living room. He did not yet dare to make eye contact with her.

She probably noticed this situation. Rose sighed.

“Look, I’m not mad, okay? Let’s just hurry up and do the assignment.” She said.

Even with Rose’s reassurance, Matthew still did not dare to look at her in the eyes. However, they still continued with their discussion.

After almost an hour…

GRUU~

A loud grumble came from Matthew's stomach. This interrupted their discussion.

Still not making eye contact, Matthew said. "Sorry, I haven't had breakfast yet."

"Hah… Just go grab a quick one." Rose said.

"Eh, are you sure?" Matthew asked, lifting his head a bit.

"Yeah, yeah, it'll be annoying to hear it while we're discussing." Rose waved her hand in dismissal.

"Oh, o-okay. Umm do you want anything too?" Matthew asked while standing up.

"No thanks, I already had mine."

"Okay then, I'll be quick-"

DING! DONG!

The doorbell suddenly rang.

"Eh, I'll go check it out real quick." Matthew walked outside after saying so.

A minute later, Matthew was back in a rush while carrying a bot in his hands.

Rose was surprised by Matthew's behaviour and asked. "What is that?"

"Forgive me Rose, but I'm afraid the discussion will have to wait a little." He said as he busily opened the box and took out its contents.

"Eh, why?"

"It's here!" Matthew shoved the poster of the new game he had just bought last night.

'I know it said one-day shipment, but this is just way too quick. Not that it matters. I can play it now!'

"What is this? A game?" Rose took the poster into her hands.

"Yes."

"Hey, what about the discussion?"

"Like I said, it will have to wait."

"What about your breakfast?"

"It will also have to wait."

"Hah?!" Rose exclaimed in surprise.

"Just a few minutes okay?" Matthew pleaded to her.

"..." Rose seemed very conflicted as she scratched her head. "Fine, just a few minutes."

"YEAY!"

"What am I doing…" Rose sighed.

It did not take long for Matthew to set up the console specially made for the game. The console had a weird design compared to most other consoles.

But that did not matter to Matthew. He sat comfortably on the floor by the console and turned it on.

The console slowly lit up to life.

A thought suddenly crossed Matthew's mind. He looked over his shoulder at Rose who was reading through the reference books. He felt bad to leave her out like that, especially after already upsetting her so far.

He took a deep breath. "Rose, do you wanna watch?" He asked.

"Eh?" She surely was shocked.

'Maybe I shouldn't have asked…'

"Umm… Sure." Rose moved to sit close to Matthew.

Matthew moved over a bit to give her some room. Then his eyes were locked on the screen.

The logo of the company working on the game showed up on the television that was connected.

CRIMSON GAMES

A scene of mountains, deserts, snow, ocean, forests, spooky grave yards played on the television in one smooth flow of the camera zooming it until it stopped at an open field of grass. Then a young woman in a suit showed up from the corner of the screen.

"Hello there fellow Hunter! Looks like it's a good day to be hunting don't you think?" The woman said.

"Before we start, do you mind telling me your name?"

A box popped up on the screen. Matthew filled it up with his name.

As soon as he was about to hit enter, something happened.

KZzzZk…

The screen suddenly showed a white noise and audio too.

"Aww man!" Matthew slapped his forehead.

"Kukuku… Looks like we'll be doing the discussion after all." Rose chuckled.

"Ugh… What's the problem?" Matthew reached out toward the console and pressed the boot button again and again but there was no response.

He was getting annoyed and frustrated. He pressed one last time, harder.

Suddenly the console let out a spark which made Matthew jump back a little. Then it emitted a blinding blue light.

"Get cover!" Matthew shouted.

"What's happening?" Rose asked.

Both of them were enveloped in the light and did not know what happened next.

…..

"Uhhn…" Matthew slowly opened his eyes and sat up straight.

"What happened…?" He scratched the back of his aching head. "Oh yeah, I was playing a game and then… A weird light…" His thoughts were stopped upon seeing a butterfly fly by in front of him.

He stood up and looked around him and slowly came to realise.

"I am… Outside?" All he saw was an open grass field with forests and mountains visible in the distance.

He was clueless of what happened. His mind was a mess after what had just happened. As such thoughts went by, he remembered something.

"What about Rose? Is she here?" He looked around for his pair. It did not take too long to find a figure with pink hair and blue clothes laying on open grass. "Ah, there she is."

Matthew jogged over to her position and kneeled down beside her. He observed her condition.

"She seems unhurt, thankfully." Matthew sighed of relief.

"Now, what to do now…" He took another glance of his surroundings.

'I have no idea what happened. We are in the middle of nowhere. We should look for help, but where do we go?' Matthew thought carefully, however, he lacked such brains to do so.

'Maybe Rose knows what to do?'

He stared at Rose who was still asleep on the ground. He hesitated, but he shook her lightly to wake her up.

"Hey, Rose, wake up."

Rose's eyes were suddenly wide open. Matthew was pulled by the collar and shook violently by Rose.

“What happened? Where am I? How did this happen? How long was I out?”

“R-Rose, calm down!” Matthew tried to calm her down, but she just would not listen. “Grh!”

Matthew threw off Rose’s hands that were grabbing him away. Then, he firmly grabbed hold of her by both her shoulders.

“Rose, look at me! You need to calm down!” Matthew who couldn’t even look at her before now locked his eyes with Rose’s. “You can’t panic now. If you do, it’ll only make it worse. Calm down. Take deep breaths.”

Matthew slowly loosened his grip. Rose who was hyperventilating a second ago also collected herself.

“Are you okay now?” Matthew asked Rose.

“Ah uh um y… Yes.” Rose fidgeted and turned away from him.

“Ha… Good, now, I don’t exactly know what happened or how it happened; but it seems that we’ve somehow been transported and left here.”

“It… It seems so.”

“Now, before anything, we should find help soon. Or at least someplace safe. Do you have any ideas?” Matthew got straight to business.

“I… I…” Rose did not say more.

Matthew thought that she might still be traumatized. Her face was really red, she could be having a fever after this event. Matthew knew he couldn’t rely on her while her condition was like this.

He straightened his back to look around again. He was hoping to see a village or city anywhere. He prayed deeply.

His prayer was answered.

He saw smoke floating up to the sky over in the distance.

‘Someone must be there!’ He thought.

“Rose, I see some smoke in over there. There has to be someone there. Come on.” Matthew prompted Rose to stand up.

However, Rose was still sitting down. As if she was scared. Matthew did not think long before he held out his hand to Rose.

Rose glanced at his hand and then his face.

“Come on.” Matthew said again.

A gust of wind suddenly blew by. Rose was somehow reminded of an old past. Tears welled up in her eyes as she grabbed Matthew’s hand.

Seeing her like this, Matthew felt empathy for her.

‘Even though she’s hot headed and serious, inside her is still a defenseless girl. I may have gotten her caught in this, I need to protect her.’

…..

Night falls.

Matthew and Rose were still walking through the forest. Aside from their tired pants, they were only surrounded by the sounds of crickets, frogs and gusts of wind. Thankfully enough, the moonlight shone brightly from the sky, illuminating their surroundings, allowing them to see.

“Ha… Ha… Ha… Matt, can we… Rest for a bit?” Rose asked while panting.

“Oh, okay.” Matthew who seemed fine agreed with her.

Rose sat down by a large tree to catch her breath, while Matthew stood guard.

“Hey, how are you not tired yet?” Rose asked.

“I don’t know. I just don’t yet I guess.” Matthew answered short.

“How is that an answer?”

“I don’t know.”

Truth be told, Matthew always had a lot of stamina. Even in a marathon, he rarely gets tired. He was always getting the top places in any such events if he participated. As if he was gifted with such.

“How are you holding up?” Matthew asked.

“Just tired… And my feet hurt.”

“Understandable. By the way, it looks like we won’t be doing the assignment anytime soon.”

“It’s your fault.”

“But I didn't know what happened, and neither do you. So why blame this on me?” Matthew retorted.

“Just because.” Rose let out a little chuckle.

“Huh…” Matthew sighed. However, this was what he wanted.

He wanted to loosen some of the tension that Rose was experiencing. Having a little laugh once in a while would work.

A few minutes had passed. Matthew took a glance in the general direction of the smoke that they had been following. The smoke was still there thankfully. He thought it was time to move.

He looked at Rose already making her way towards him.. “Shall we get going now?”

“Yes.” Rose replied.

“Alright, let’s-” Before he could finish his sentence, his instincts were suddenly warning him of danger. However, the warning was not directed at him, but rather…

“Rose! Watch out!” Matthew shouted as he sprinted towards her.

From the darkness of the forest, something jumped out at Rose.

In the nick of time, Matthew also leapt at Rose and grabbed her by the waist. Just barely dodging whatever jumped at them.

“Aah!” “Grh!” Rose and Matthew landed hard on the ground.

“Are you okay Rose?” Matthew asked as he slowly got up from Rose.

“Yes, I’m fine. Thank you. What was that?” Rose peeked over Matthew’s shoulder to get a look at what jumped at them.

Matthew also turned around to look. What they saw made their bodies stiff.

It was a creature with the features of a wolf, but its size was almost three times larger than one. It also had striped horns on its head. Its fur was glistening silver grey that slightly shone under the moonlight. It growled while locked in a cold stare with Matthew.

For some reason, Matthew also stared at the beast. As if he was ready to fight it.

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